A fictionalized western drama, based on Custer’s Last Stand, telling the story of an onerous officer who sends all of his men to death in a disastrous campaign against the Sioux. The script was written by no other than Sam Peckinpah and based on a novel by Hoffman Birney called The Dice of God. Peckinpah wrote the script between November 1956 and March 1957, at a salary of $500 a week (1) but it was only filmed a decade later, without any invlovement of Peckinpah.

With its colorful depiction of army life in an around an army outpost the film is often compared to John Ford’s Fort Apache, also inspired by Custer’s Last Stand. But instead of concentrating on the Custer-like commander, General McCabe, the story is told from the viewpoint of a collection of characters and the wom…